The Five Barber Bishop Brouhaha

As an arbiter, I am in a unique position to see many things unfold in chess that are normally unnoticed. I would like to share some fun things that happened in my work here in Orlando at the Invitationals. Saturday night’s Round 1 pitted Cael Province (1874) vs FIDE Master Jason Wang (2388). Cael played hard and came up with a spectacular ending in his match. Here’s the game to enjoy.

[pgn] [Event "2019 Barber"] [Site "?"] [Date "2019.08.03"] [Round "1.6"] [White "Province, Cael"] [Black "Wang, Jason"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D20"] [WhiteElo "1874"] [BlackElo "2388"] [PlyCount "45"] [EventDate "2019.??.??"] [WhiteClock "0:28:19"] [BlackClock "0:19:45"] 1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e3 e5 4. Bxc4 exd4 5. Nf3 Bb4+ 6. Bd2 Bxd2+ 7. Qxd2 Nc6 8. exd4 Nf6 9. Ne5 O-O 10. Nxc6 bxc6 11. O-O Qd6 12. f3 Bf5 13. Nc3 Rad8 14. Rad1 Rd7 15. Qg5 Bc2 16. Rd2 Qb4 17. Bxf7+ Rfxf7 18. Rxc2 Qxd4+ 19. Rcf2 Rfe7 20. Qc1 Re3 21. Ne4 Rxe4 22. fxe4 Nxe4 23. Qc4+ 1-0 [/pgn]

Because Cael literally jumped up and down when he won, and ran off, he left all his belongings at the table. (OK, he walked really fast as “we do not run in scholastic chess events,” right Boyd?) I knew Cael was from Kansas, and so I emailed a chess friend, Sky Puwit Moerlien’s mother Sumitta Moerlien, to see if she could help. Sumitta received the email and forwarded it to Cael’s family and Cael returned in 30 minutes for his belongings. What I didn’t realize is that Sumitta was vacationing in Thailand at the time, so my request for Cael to come pick up his belongings had traveled literally around the globe! I started to sing “what a small chess world after all” to myself… which felt very appropriate since we were in Orlando.

The next game of interest was Luke Ye (2082) vs Benjamin Lauer (1846). And what a game it was.

[pgn] [Event "2019 Barber"] [Site "?"] [Date "2019.08.05"] [Round "5"] [White "Ye, Luke"] [Black "Lauer, Benjamin"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B76"] [WhiteElo "2082"] [BlackElo "1846"] [PlyCount "175"] [EventDate "2019.??.??"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. f3 Bg7 7. Be3 O-O 8. Qd2 Nc6 9. O-O-O d5 10. exd5 Nxd5 11. Nxc6 bxc6 12. Bd4 e5 13. Bc5 Be6 14. Ne4 f5 15. Bxf8 Qxf8 16. Ng5 Bh6 17. Bc4 Rb8 18. h4 Qc5 19. Bb3 a5 20. Kb1 Qb6 21. c4 Nc7 22. Qd6 Bxg5 23. hxg5 Qb7 24. Qe7 Bf7 25. Rd7 Rf8 26. Rxc7 Qb8 27. c5 Qe8 28. Bxf7+ Qxf7 29. Rxh7 Qxe7 30. Rcxe7 Rb8 31. Reg7+ Kf8 32. Rh8+ Kxg7 33. Rxb8 e4 34. fxe4 fxe4 35. Re8 a4 36. Rxe4 a3 37. b3 Kh7 38. Ra4 Kg8 39. Rxa3 Kf7 40. Ra6 Kg7 41. Rxc6 Kh7 42. b4 Kg7 43. b5 Kh7 44. b6 Kg7 45. b7 Kh8 46. b8=B Kh7 47. a4 Kg7 48. a5 Kg8 49. a6 Kg7 50. a7 Kh7 51. a8=B Kg7 52. Rf6 Kh7 53. c6 Kg8 54. c7 Kh7 55. c8=B Kg7 56. Be4 Kh7 57. Rxg6 Kh8 58. Rh6+ Kg7 59. Be5+ Kf8 60. Rh8+ Kf7 61. g6+ Ke7 62. Re8+ Kxe8 63. g7 Kf7 64. Bd5+ Ke7 65. g8=B Kf8 66. g4 Ke7 67. g5 Ke8 68. g6 Kf8 69. g7+ Ke8 70. Bh1 Ke7 71. Bgd5 Kd8 72. Bcb7 Ke7 73. g8=B Kf8 74. Kc2 Ke7 75. Kd3 Kd7 76. Kd4 Ke7 77. Bde6 Kf8 78. Bf6 Ke8 79. Bd7+ Kxd7 80. Kd5 Ke8 81. Kd6 Kf8 82. Bc4 Ke8 83. Bg7 Kd8 84. Bd4 Ke8 85. Ke6 Kf8 86. Kf6 Ke8 87. Bhc6+ Kd8 88. Bb6# 1-0 [/pgn]

In what will undoubtedly go down in chess lore as the “2019 Five Barber Bishop Brouhaha,” Luke was cruising to victory when he concocted the idea to promote his pawns to all Bishops. Yes, I know it seems unsportsmanlike. But these two friends appeared to be working together on the plan. Luke was risking a draw by stalemate with his actions. This arbiter might have whispered a word or three about sportsmanship to the players if I didn’t notice they were laughing and having a grand old time. A few people stopped at their board and started to look on the game. Then a few more stopped by, and soon it snowballed into a small mob of gawkers from the youth Invitationals.

As checkmate loomed nearer as the five bishops started to squeeze black’s king into a narrow box of safe squares the crowd gasped thinking Luke may just blow the win and get a draw. As I said, these two were having a good time, not caring about winning or losing. It reminded me of two friends building a sandcastle on the beach or a fort out of furniture and old blanket during a sleepover, but their medium was the chessboard. What I enjoyed about this game was the camaraderie between the players and the spectators admiring the beauty of their positional creation. Perhaps GM Pal Benko could even make a puzzle out of this idea.

I enjoy chess because of the friends I make along the way. For this year’s Iowa Open (September 13-15, Iowa City, IA) I made the t-shirts for the event two months in advance. I gave one to each of the invitational players from Iowa and we all wore them. Even better my daughter Crissy designed the logo with a “Field of Dreams” theme. It made for a great team photo and will inspire good chess memories of our trip to the 120th US Open.